Weird & wacky

Dalat’s “crazy house” gets official acknowledgement after 18 years for its architectural expressionism.

The administration of the Central Highland’s Lam Dong Province has issued an ownership certificate for Dalat’s famous “crazy house,” a structure which has gone 18 years without formal approval due to its oddness.

An official from the provincial administration said they had granted the “construction work ownership certificate” to the Crazy House because they now considered it to be an “experimental” work of art, thanks largely to its “extraordinariness.”

Hang Nga Crazy House on Huynh Thuc Khang Street has long drawn the attention of foreigners, particularly avant-garde enthusiasts, who admire it as a true work of art, a countercultural gem with-out parallel anywhere else in Vietnam.

It was first opened to the public in late 1992 when it was owner and architect Viet Nga’s private residence.

Later, it became a hotel and the owner called it Hang Nga Guesthouse.

But beholders preferred to call it Hang Nga Tree House, Spider Web Palace, or Crazy House, with the last name sticking.

This is first time the administration has granted such a certificate to a private structure in the city of Dalat.

It previously had refused to issue an ownership certificate to the house’s owner and architect, Viet Nga, and never approved the house’s design.

They claimed its architectural arrangement was abnormal and threatened to demolish it many times.

Since up until now it has been considered “illegal construction work,” Crazy House has therefore only completed two-thirds of Nga’s design.

But is it art?

The provincial People’s Committee have now acknowledged Crazy House belongs to “expressionism,” an artistic genre of the early 20th century.

Some might find surrealism a better label for this edifice for it is certainly bizarre.

A gargantuan spiderweb hangs over a pond.


Dalat’s “Crazy House” has finally achieved official recognition for its “expressionistic” artistry after 18 years

Nearby in a garden, thick vines curl around a concrete tree trunk that grows into a nude maiden, the main house.

Two concrete giraffes house a cafe.

A giant eagle perches on an egg-shaped fireplace.

The giant spiderweb is made of wires and tubes and hangs over the pond.

The solitary spider is carved out of wood, but there are other webs woven through the branches of the pines and extending to the house’s roof.

They make bizarre patterns against the sky.

A natural statement

Viet Nga says when she moved from Hanoi to Dalat nearly two decades ago she witnessed the devastation of many beautiful pine forests as well as the deterioration of the environment.

With a doctorate in architecture from Moscow, she began to dream of using architecture as a language to raise public awareness of protecting nature and the environment.

In early 1990, she started experimenting with a mixture of architecture styles in her 1,600-sq.m. villa.

Each room has a theme – animal, plant or insect – and everything inside fits the theme.

Thus there are the Bird, Ant, Tiger, Pheasant, Bamboo, and Gourd rooms.

Handles and doorknobs are exquisitely carved into animal motifs; stuffed animal heads hang on one wall, baskets made by ethnic minority people around Dalat on another.

To date, she has spent VND7 billion (US$437,226), mostly borrowed from local banks, on her work.

For those wishing to stay, each of the 10 rooms costs $290 per night.

Crazy House receives mentions in some famous international tourist guidebooks like Le Guide de Routard, Trotter, and Discovery.

It also has a special room commemorating Nga’s father, Truong Chinh, who was the General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1941-1960 and President of the country from 1981-1987.